Pit Clogging

[washregal]

Hello all : I have one SS bay that has a continuous pit clog - others seemt o be ok - I have a 90 deg elbow on the end of each pit. The one pit does drain but really slow - unfortunately with this season of the year - it turns into a pond and eventually an ice rink.

Is there a rule of thumb / basis of design for self service pit drainage that anyone can share? Private message me or post please.. Thank you in advance.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

The previous owners of my wash used ( only in the autos though ) 4" PVC caps with 3/8" holes drilled into it and placed on the pipe. Keeps a lot of stuff from going into the drain pipe and possibly clogging it. I get the occasional clog on a SS pit and have been meaning to place the caps in the SS bays but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[MEP001]

The line is probably full of mud. I prefer elbows on the pipes which will stop floating debris from going down the drain and clogging stuff up, but if you have an elbow pointing down and let the pit get too full it will just suck the mud right down the drain where it will settle out. It should be easy to clear with a drain cleaning nozzle on a high pressure hose.

 

[Eric H]

I use a 4" pvc sanitary tee in the pit. The tee is installed vertically so that the water can float up the bottom of the tee and discharge out of side into the drain pipe. If the pit gets full of mud and covers the bottom inlet the water will rise to the top of the tee and flow in from the top. I can usually see when the water level is getting above its normal height and shovel some mud out until I can clean the pit.

If you have mud in the drain pipe already you should be able to clear it out with this https://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/p-3816-drain-cleaning-nozzle-38-male-stainless-steel.aspx and however many feet of 3/8" hose to reach your gas and oil separator. I just attach the long hose to the bay gun and it works fine. I try to jet out my drains every fall as a preventative measure so that I don't get clogs during the winter when it is either too busy or too cold to be out there with my hands in the nasty pit water.

 

[wendy's wash]

The only thing that I can suggest is not to use 3/8 inch hose. If you want to make it easier for the tip to go around corners and do the same job, just use a 1/4" hose. It just makes the job easier to clean up the pipe. Just use adapters to connect tip to the hose, and connect the other end to your Bay hose. When I bought my course 34 years ago I've always tried to find ways to make things easier. Cutting the glued 90° 4"pipe off in the pit drain. Buying new 90s and just pulling them off one of pit gets clogged makes it so much easier to feed that quarter inch pressure hose through to the Masters. Hope this helps.

 

[wash4me]

It's possible you have something coating your lines that the jetter tip won't wash off. I would rent a sewer auger with a 4 inch bit and a 3 inch bit. Run it through all of the pipe after jetting then jet again.